The Supreme Court Ruling & Budget Cuts May Help and Hurt Students with Learning Disabilities and Dyslexia

Mimi Cochran, the new President and CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, recently wrote an excellent article titled, “What is ahead for students with learning disabilities“. The picture is not encouraging for students with dyslexia and learning disabilities.

Ms. Corcoran notes the new Supreme Court Ruling on students with disabilities should help. This will definitely help, because it rejects the concept of minimal progress for students with significant disabilities. For students with dyslexia and learning disabilities, the requirement for meaningful and appropriate progress may not result in anything different unless …

Below I will discuss what advocacy groups should consider — but I want to start with what a parent should know and do.

What a Parent of a Student with Learning Disabilities and Dyslexia Should Know

1- The present situation in Florida and most other states often results in delayed identification and often never identifies students with dyslexia and learning disabilities.

2- For students not yet identified, parents need to aggressively and collaboratively expedite the process. We have laid out the steps on our “The RTI Trap” page, where we explain the Response to Intervention cannot be used to delay or deny evaluations and that parents need to write a letter with the appropriate documentation — this is all provide at The RTI Trap.

3- You need to manage this process — schools may balk, they may move slowly, but they often respond well to a collaborative parent who stays on top of the situation.

4- IEP Goals are often written in a way that drives me crazy. Too often the goals are focused on phonics, the sounds of words, and reading fluency (how well a student reads out loud). These goals are OK, but I believe that for 90%+ of the students with dyslexia and learning disabilities, reading comprehension is the key. I believe parents should insist on the present level of performance for reading comprehension with passages equal in length to what they are tested on, a goal that gets them either to or closer to grade level and the necessary actions to accomplish these goals. I have been told, “That is not what we do at our school”. Personally, I believe it is imperative for most kids to have the right present level of performance, goals and actions to achieve grade level reading.

For a $25 donation to our foundation we will provide an online assessment of reading speed and comprehension, your child’s vocabulary level, and a note to your school. Just call us at 561-361-7495

Parents, advocates and advocacy groups push hard for truly significant gains — with the goal of moving as many students as possible to grade level proficiency.

Advocacy Groups Must Work together to help students with Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities to Succeed

Ms. Corcoran’s efforts to work collaboratively with the Department of Education to insure schools get the required funding for general and special education and professional development are right on point. The President of the United States has sent mixed messages — first saying there will be a significant cut in education funding and later responding to corporate pressures, he indicated there would be much more support for education.

Students with Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities and Dyslexia Need BOLD Goals, an Increase in Funding and a Fundamental Mindset Shift

Over the last 5 years there has been no gains in proficiency for students with learning disabilities and dyslexia – with only 13% of our students now being proficient. I have met with Florida’s Commissioner of Education and the State Director of Special Education and I am very pessimistic that we will see a concerted drive towards:

Higher proficiency rates for all students with dyslexia and learning disabilities

Much higher rates of Success by Third Grade for students with dyslexia and learning disabilities — third grade being a year that is critical for students

An improvement in early identification and effective remediation for our students

The National Center for Learning Disabilities, the Learning Disabilities Association of America, the International Dyslexia Association and all other groups need to work together with government and school districts to set BOLD Goals for our students to succeed – we need to start with a mindset change, new goals and then provide the funding and support for our students to reach grade level proficiency.

For help with your child, you can take our online assessment and call us for a no cost strategy session at 561-361-7495.

Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities Often Mask Learning Differences and Other Challenges

Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities are the two most common labels for smart struggling students, but they often mask five key issues:

Most students with dyslexia and learning disabilities learn differently — we estimate 80 to 90%

Many students with dyslexia and learning disabilities have ADHD and many of the others have an attention problem

Anxiety and stress are very common for students with dyslexia and learning disabilities

Eye-teaming issues are very common for students with dyslexia and learning disabilities

For students with dyslexia and learning disabilities, school-based interventions are of limited help and parents often need to find the right answers to help their child with dyslexia and learning disabilities succeed

3D Learner Helps Students with Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities Succeed in Months Not Years

At 3D Learner, we realize that terms like Dyslexia and a Learning Disabilities can help a child can get services from a public or charter schools, but rarely helps the student to achieve their full potential. For students in private schools or who are home schooled, these terms can often mask alternative treatments that focus on your child’s strengths and challenges. What are the five key problems:

1- School based assessments are focused on what is wrong with a child. Outside assessments are often focused on identifying challenges, and sometimes miss the strengths your child may have.

2- School-based assessments and goals focus on reading fluency and what I call 4 out of 5 goals (e.g. four out of 5 times Matthew will answer inferential questions correctly) do not identify or address the key goal most parents want — how do we dramatically improve our child’s reading comprehension and love of reading and learning

3- Attention and anxiety issues are often missed, but when they are identified, the recommendations are often for ADHD medication, anxiety medication, and/or counseling. They often do not offer natural and effective solutions like the Interactive Metronome (R) and Brain Gym (R) exercises

4- Eye-teaming issues are often not identified or addressed

5- Parents do not have an easy way to identify learning differences, attention, anxiety and eye-teaming issues.

Learning Disabilities and Dyslexia Often Mask Strengths and Challenges

Therefore, we have developed a Success Assessment that screens for these issues. Parents have learned a great deal from the answers their child gives, from the Strategy Session and from understanding both their child’s strengths and challenges and how the parents can make the difference.

To Beat The RTI Trap You Must Have the Right Mindset, Assessments and Partners

At 3D Learner, we have helped thousands of students succeed — and we are particularly sensitive to the consistently inconsistent RTI or Response to Intervention Process, especially for students with Learning Disabilities and Dyslexia

The Success MAP (TM) for Response to Intervention) includes:

Mindset that you will help your child succeed and be tested for learning disabilities or dyslexia ASAP, ifa appropriate

Assess for a Disability and Assess for Success

Partner with the right professionals and/or advocate

The RTI Trap Impacts Students with Learning Disabilities and Dyslexia

If you suspect Dyslexia and/or Learning Disabilities and your child is in a public or charter school, you have the right to ask for an evaluation. While schools may say that they must complete the Response to Intervention process before considering an evaluation, that is not true — RTI Cannot be use to delay or deny and evaluation.

While the system for identifying students with learning disabilities and dyslexia is consistently inconsistent, there are a number of things that parents and outside professionals can do to get a student an evaluation and services.

There is a very clear letter from Melody Musgrove, the former director OSEP (the Federal Office for Special Education Programs), that clearly says that RTI cannot be used to delay or deny an evaluation — RTI, the Melody Musgrove Letter and a sample letter parents can use can be found at The RTI Trap.

Parents and professionals, take action and ask your questions below or email me at markhalpert3d@gmail.com or call me at 561-361-7495

The percent of students with specific learning disabilities in Florida has decreased from 8.8% to under 5 percent over the last 12 years. What is worse is that there are even more students today with learning disabilities and dyslexia today, because the standards are higher and little else has changed.

I have seen dozens of presentations on Response to Intervention ( a three tiered process that tries to help a child succeed before considering special education). None have left me with the feeling that what we are doing is right for students with learning disabilities and dyslexia.

In 2011, I was about to speak at the National Center for Learning Disabilities forum on RTI. Professor Don Deshler, from the University of Kansas was the keynote speaker. He commented that RTI could either be a game changer or a comma in history. He asked me what I was going to speak on. I responded — I am going to speak on Parents Need to Be Effectively Integrated into the RTI Process. Professor Deshler encouraged me to say just that.

Very little has changed since then, but there is a way that parents and outside professionals can help the parents to be even more effective.

Avoid The RTI Trap and Get an Evaluation for Learning Disabilities

We have developed an approach to Beating the RTI Trap, with a 3 Step Process

1- Write a letter to the school requesting an evaluation and making sure they know that they must assess within 60 calendar days.

2- Making sure they know that you know that RTI cannot be used to delay or deny an evaluation. We include both of these in our draft letter parents can use at The RTI Trap.

3. Get help from a parent advocate, a special education attorney or a psychologist or other professional who can help you advocate.

We are available to help and we are also looking for parents and professionals who are interested in joining our team at the Learning Disabilities Association of Florida, where we are committed to improving identification and results for students with learning disabilities, that includes students with dyslexia.

You can reach Mark Halpert at 561-361-7495 for a no cost Stress to Success Strategy Session

Diagnosing Student as a Right-Brain Learner or a 3D Learner would be far more empowering than a label of Dyslexia, Learning Disabilities &/or ADHD

For years we read reports that labeled students with learning disabilities, dyslexia, and ADHD, when the student was a right-brain learner or 3D Learner — who learned best when he or she saw and experienced information. Fortunately, the tide is turning and ….

More Psychologist Are Identifying Students as a Right-Brain Learner or a 3D Learner

The young man had a 136 IQ and did not respond to either two dyslexia treatments or ADHD medication. Mom went to another psychologist and got a different diagnosis — a right-brain learner, who had gifted excitability. 3D Learner was recommended. With our right-brain program that played to his strengths, he started to excel in reading, math and science.

More private psychologists are identifying the right-brain learner, but sometimes it is missed. We have rarely seen a school report identify a learning difference or a right-brain learner.

Too often people focus on a student’s weaknesses. As Einstein said,

Right-brain Learners or 3D Learners Often Struggle with Traditional Approaches

At 3D Learner, our specialty is with students who learn best when he or she sees and experiences information – we call them, 3D Learners — others may label them as right-brain learners, visual-spatial learners or students who learn differently. We help gifted students; we help students with dyslexia, learning disabilities and ADHD; and we help students without labels and those with more significant disabilities.

The common link is that most of our students learn differently and have some combination of attention, eye-teaming, working memory, processing speed and/or related issues.

What are the key questions to ask that might identify a right-brain learner with the potential to do far better:

– Does the student remember places visited, even from years ago?

– Does the student learn best when he or she sees and experiences information?

– Is the academic performance well below the student’s potential?

We offer a much more comprehensive Success Assessment at 3D Learner, This screens for a learning difference and attention, eye-teaming and related challenges.

Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities Often Masks The Right-Brain Learner

For more information on how we help your child or students who might be a right-brain learner you can call us at 561-361-7495.

Famous People with Dyslexia Often Have Right-Brain Dyslexia

Like Einstein, Edison, Disney, Branson and possibly your child, most people with dyslexia are right-brain learners who learn differently and they are incredibly talented. We believe their ability to be so successful is in large part a result of their being right-brain learners who are creative, great problem solvers, and who can create new and innovative products and solutions.

We believe these famous people with dyslexia have right-brain dyslexia and are bright right-brain learners.

We believe there is a sharp difference between dyslexia and right-brain dyslexia. To see if your child is a right-brain learner, visit 3D Learner and take our Success Assessment

Dyslexia is often defined as:

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. (Lyon, Shaywitz, & Shaywitz, 2003, p. 2)

We would define right-brain dyslexia as…

a condition with the person learns best when he or she sees and experiences information and has problems with reading fluency and reading comprehension. These challenges are often a combination of phonics challenges, and difficulty understanding sight words (e.g. but, what, if, except etc.), remembering words the person has seen and not mastered, and not using their visualization skills to create a picture for what they have read.

The Right Dyslexia Treatment Depends on Whether Your Child Has Dyslexia or Right-Brain Dyslexia

Dyslexia Treatments often focus on phonics and phonemic awareness — with a sharp focus on mastering decoding — which is a critical skill.

Let’s take the most common student with right-brain dyslexia we see. Lisa has problems with phonics, sight words, recognizing words she had seen, attention, visual processing and not being able to visualize what she read.

After two dyslexia treatments and $40,000 later, her reading comprehension was at the 1st grade level and her reading speed was 115 words per minute as she was entering 5th grade.

With the 3D Learner Program (R), Lisa was able to improve her

Reading comprehension by 4 grade levels within 7 months

Reading speed from 115 to 229 words per minute

Ability to get her homework done more independently and to decrease homework time from 2.5 hours to 70 minutes.

With our own child. we made the mistake of focusing on traditional dyslexia treatments, until we realized she was a bright right-brain learner with right-brain dyslexia.

If you suspect your child has dyslexia or a reading comprehension issue, we recommend you consider the following question:

Is Your Child a Bright Right-Brain Learner with Right-Brain Dyslexia?

who would benefit from a program that plays to their strengths and identifies the visual processing, attention and related challenges that often co-exist in this population.

We offer a no cost Success Assessment that screens for a learning difference and attention and visual processing challenges

To access this no cost Success Assessment, to get immediate feedback and to get a no cost consult visit 3D Learner and click on Start the Assessment.

Treatment Options for Dyslexia Often Ignore a Learn Difference

The three takeaways from the article on Dyslexia Treatment Options are:

There are no medications that treat dyslexia, but medication could help kids deal with co-occurring issues like ADHD or anxiety.

Speech therapy or educational therapy could help kids with dyslexia make strides.

There are many ways beyond medication and therapy to help kids with dyslexia succeed at school and in life.

What if the student with dyslexia learns differently and has an attention and eye-teaming issue. This is the child we call the Bulls Eye Kid — in our work with students with dyslexia we have found that

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most of these students learn differently and have an attention and/or visual perception issue.

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If a student learns differently and has both an attention and eye-teaming issue– the point in the middle where the three circles intersect is what we call the bulls eye kid

Criteria for the Best Dyslexia Treatment Option for a Bulls Eye Kid

1- Does the dyslexia treatment option have a comprehensive assessment for a learning difference and attention, visual processing and related challenges

2- Does the dyslexia treatment option capitalize on your child’s ability to learn best when your child sees and experiences information

3- Does the dyslexia treatment option focus on frequently used word vocabulary (e.g. words like but, what, if and except) and teach your child to recognize whole words

4- Does the dyslexia treatment option directly or indirectly identify and address the relevant issues

5- Does the dyslexia treatment help you to be the coach and advocate your child needs

Informed, Empowered and Proactive Parents Make the Difference

For The Bulls-Eye Kid

If this describes your child in whole or in part, you want to consider:

– Screening for the learning difference and the attention, eye-teaming and related challenge

– Find a treatment that capitalizes on your child’s strengths, identifies his or her challenges and help your child to succeed in months not years

To help you we have:

– A book Mira Halpert, the 3D Learner Program (R) Developer has written called, “Life is a Ball, Do Not Put Me in a Box

– Developed a Success Assessment that screens for the learning difference and the attention and eye-teaming challenge

At no cost, we would like to offer you a downloadable copy of the book, the Success Assessment with immediate feedback and a Dyslexia Stress to Success Strategy Session — just go to the bottom of the page at our 3D Learner Dyslexia Page

Boca Raton Dyslexia — Famous people with dyslexia include …

Dr.. Sally Shaywitz, a dyslexia expert who has previously focused on the problems people with dyslexia have, now is exploring the question:

Do dyslexics develop their special talents by learning to negotiate their disability or whether such skills are the genetic inheritance of being dyslexic.

The thousands of people we have met with dyslexia tend to struggle with the written word and yet have the ability to both think in 3 dimensions and to solve problems in creative ways — while compensating skills may help, we suspect people with dyslexia often think differently from birth. This means dyslexics often:
– Struggle in school, especially with understanding what they read and
– Often do well in business if they are allowed to utilize their skills

The challenge is that schools tend to teach everyone the same way — for a student with dyslexia, they will use the same approach, whether the child learns best with a phonics-based approach or with a visual-experiential or 3D Learner approach

The good news first — most students with dyslexia do far better in business than in school

I was once interviewing a group of engineers, and was told to interview three people, but not to interview the fourth, because he was lazy, unmotivated and dyslexic.

I interviewed the first three — all good candidates.

I gave the dyslexic engineer a problem to solve and in 5 minutes he had solved something that our engineers had been struggling for months.

This engineer had 12 patents within 4 years

I hired him, but the results were not what I expected, until I paired him with a great finisher — someone who could capitalize on his strengths and compensate for his challenges.

The key skills he had were that he learned differently and was a very effective problem solver.

People with dyslexia often have both gifts they are born with and compensating skills they develop.

They may need extra help too — and the payoff can be huge.

Students with Dyslexia who are visual learners, can succeed with strength-based training

Schools neither test for a learning difference nor do they differentiate how they teach based on how a student learns best. They also neither identify nor do they address the attention, eye-teaming, processing speed and/or working memory issues that often impact a student with dyslexia. The mage below describes many of our students.

Our approach is to focus first and foremost on strength-based training to teach the visual learner how to leverage their related skills. Strength-based training both engages the student and leads to faster gains.

Our Boca Raton Dyslexia Center leverages strength-based training.

We recognize the need to identify and address the attention, eye-teaming and related issues, but have found strength-based training to be the best way to engage the child and to show gains.

Do you have a child who may have dyslexia, learns differently and has related challenge?

To make this easy for you, we have developed a no cost assessment you can take and get more information when you …

“Phonics instruction does not need to be eliminated altogether, but sight word vocabulary needs to be built first.
Then whole words or syllables can be compared and the pattern recognition capacities of the visual-spatial learner can be brought to bear”.

What if the right-brain learner also has attention and eye-tracking issues, in far larger percentages than most people think. Research will tell us exactly what the percentages are, but dyslexia and right-brain learner is very, very common in the population we see.

Then, before embarking on a Multisensory Language Program, one might consider:

– Assessing for right-hemisphere strengths, difficulty with frequently used words and recognizing word patterns, and attention and eye-teaming issues

– Addressing the relevant issues

At 3D Learner, we have found that:

– Many of these students have the right hemisphere strengths long before they struggle with reading. These students often have an uncanny ability to remember places visited, even from years ago and to remember what they have seen and experienced. It would be valuable to prove this with research

– Many right-brain learners need the foundational skills first and their attention and eye-teaming issues addressed, and some do not need a phonics-based program

– Some still need the phonics-based program, but in a number of cases they have made far quicker progress than one would have expected, because they had the relevant

In addition to doing research on the right hemisphere strengths and whether they exist before the reading difficulties are experienced, it may be very helpful to conduct research to see if those with right hemisphere strengths, we call them right-brain learners, would benefit from right-brain programs.

We suspect that research will validate the value of right-brain programs for right-brain learners — and that there are probably many forms of dyslexia — we believe it is very helpful to determine if your child or student:

– Is a right-brain child and do they have attention, eye-teaming or related challenges

– Is a left-brain learner and would benefit from a traditional dyslexia program or dyslexia treatment

Is It Dyslexia or a Vision Issue or Dyslexia and a Vision Issue

“It is important to remember that normal sight may not necessarily be synonymous with normal vision…That being said, if there is a vision problem, it could be preventing the best tutoring and learning methods from working. Now that certainly doesn’t mean every dyslexic child needs vision therapy, however in my opinion, skills such as focusing, tracking and others are essential foundational tools for reading”

Whether your child has dyslexia or learning disabilities, it is important to understand if there is also a vision related challenge.

We have also seen that many students with dyslexia learn differently and have either an attention and/or vision challenge.

There are many people who see the world quite differently:

– Many will argue that dyslexia is a problem with the sound symbol relationship. We would agree with that, but it is equally true that many students with dyslexia learn differently and they first need to understand the sight words (i.e. words like but, what, if, and etc. that do not create a picture), to recognize words seen but not mastered, and to visualize what he or she reads. We believe it is critical to screen for a learning difference, to see if your child learns best when your child sees and experiences information

– Many will argue that dyslexia and vision are two very different conditions. Again, we would agree, but there is one huge difference in our experience — we see dyslexia and vision challenges occurring in the same child in over 70% of the students with dyslexia we see. We believe it is equally important to screen for both a learning difference and an eye-teaming challenge. The presence of one, increases the likelihood that both might exist

– People often argue that eye-teaming issues and vision issues are often confused, but we see both occurring in over half the students we see.

In our practice, we focus on students who learn differently and :
– Over half the students we see learn differently and have both an eye-teaming and attention challenge

– A quarter learn differently and have an eye-teaming issue, without an attention challenge

– A quarter learn differently and have an attention issue, without an eye-teaming challenge

When a child is struggling, it is important to see if the child learns differently and has either an attention and/or eye-teaming issue.

Rather than try and answer which of these are true for your child.

Whether your child is gifted, a smart struggling student, or a child with dyslexia and/or learning disabilities, it is very helpful to screen for a learning difference and attention and eye-teaming challenge.

We have developed a Success Assessment that screens for a learning difference and an attention and/or eye-teaming issue.

We provide the assessment and immediate feedback at no cost and a strategy session to help you to see how you can help your child to achieve Success in Months Not Years

Dyslexia and Right-Brain Learners

Dyslexia affects a large population of the public, especially now that we understand that it is not limited to people who “read their letters backwards.” Rather, dyslexia encompasses a host of varying reading, spelling, and writing disabilities or differences.

Another characteristic that affects a large population of the public is right-brained thinking. This refers to individuals with strong visual skills and memory who tend to store and access information mostly in picture form. For the right brained learner, pictures are their main line of information – – words are secondary sources at most.

Researchers have been making connections in recent years between right-brained thinking and dyslexia. It makes sense that those who struggle with word-based tasks might not be “learning disabled” as much as they are just “learning different”. In fact, in visual spatial skills, even right-brained learners who are severely dyslexic can outperform their left-brained peers 2 to 1. While logical, or sequential tasks can stump them, these learners can show incredible strength in holistic and creative tasks.

This being the case, children with dyslexia should definitely be tested for brain dominance. If your child seems to be a visual thinker, then it will not be enough to just “treat” the dyslexia. Right-brained visual learners need to be taught in specific ways that will capitalize on their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.

Dyslexia and Right-Brain Learners Are Often The Same Student

What is dyslexia is really difficulty learning to read the way the student is taught.

Then one might come to the conclusion to both assess for brain dominance and them teach according to a student’s strengths. If you did this, you would be 1/4 of the way there.

The second key point is that these students with the combination of dyslexia and right-brain learners are more likely to have an attention, eye-teaming or both issues.

The third points is that for students with the combination of dyslexia and right-brain learners, there is a significant chance that the student has an attention, eye-teaming or both issues

The fourth and most critical issue is for the parents to find the right program that teaches to their right-brain learner’s strengths, identifies and address the challengers, and helps the parents to the coach that their child with the combination of dyslexia and right-brain learner needs.